


Christmas With Friends

by shooponthemoon



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe, Christmas, Fluff, Friendship, Holidays, Multi, Prompt Fic, Snow, Snowed In
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-12
Updated: 2015-01-12
Packaged: 2018-03-07 05:58:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3163859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shooponthemoon/pseuds/shooponthemoon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: Erwin, Levi, Hanji, and Mike spending Christmas together because they got snowed in and couldn't get out to visit their own families.<br/>(relationships are mostly just mentioned, the story is focused on their friendship)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Christmas With Friends

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for the prompt! It already feel like Christmas is so far away... not that my family is really big on the holiday in the first place haha.  
> Really glad to write more with them scouting bros, ahhh my faves XD

Levi took another sip of his wine as he leaned back on the kitchen counter, the frown on his face a constant feature since their problems had started three days ago. He watched as Hanji energetically mixed a bowl full of cookie mix they hoped hadn’t gone bad, while the small oven whirred beside him as it worked hard to heat the questionable-looking lasagna and frozen pizza they had found at the bottom of the freezer in the small cabin’s basement.

A week ago, he, Erwin, Mike, and Hanji had driven up to a small forest cabin in the middle of the Maria Mountains. The cabin belonged to Mike’s parents – not that they ever came up much anymore – and the four friends used it as their gathering place every time they had a chance to leave the city, to get together and try to relive their college days, back when the four had been roommates.

The plan had been to spend a few days together, eating good food and enjoying the wintry forest and snowshoe trails that surrounded the area, before driving back on the 21st so that they could all be home in time to spend Christmas with their loved ones. The evening of the 20th everyone had said their goodbyes and packed their bags to be ready to leave at first light in the morning, and hopefully get back to the city before the evening rush hour.

But freezing rain overnight had forced them to push back their plans for the next day, as Erwin’s car in particular did not do so well on icy roads, especially out there on winding, unpaved forest roads. Levi really did not want to die on their way back home to visit Erwin’s parents, so he, along with Erwin, had been easily persuaded by Hanji and Mike to stay another day as it seemed like things would warm up soon and the ice would melt.

Mike had given Hanji a ride there in his truck, and though they would have probably been fine enough to make the drive, they didn’t quite feel like abandoning their friends to another day alone at the cottage. Mike did go out for a beer run, since another night together meant another night of drinking, and picked up a few more food items at the nearest corner store so that they’d also have enough for breakfast and snacks the next day.

This had proved to be quite useful as the temperature had _not_ gotten warmer overnight. In fact, the weather had gotten worse, and by the time they had woken up on the 22 nd it had been a full-on blizzard outside and they had found themselves completely snowed in. Levi had embarrassingly thrown a fit that morning as he had sat on the couch swaddled in blankets, cursing the elements and pouting over the cut of hot chocolate Erwin had handed him with a chuckle.

Mike and Erwin had seemed quite unbothered by the events, and Hanji had just been excited to share even _more_ of her gruesome morgue stories with Levi, who would simply shudder and try to suppress the urge to go clean something, _anything_.

On the 23rd, they had woken up to no power, no heat, and no internet. Mike and Erwin had spent most of the morning trying to clear a path to the stacks of logs at the side of the cabin, and once Hanji had gotten a fire going, they’d tried their best to dig out the cars and brought back in some of the stuff they’d left in their trunks, including two boxes of granola bars, the last case of beer (nearly frozen), and a jug of water they could melt and drink if the blackout persisted and their pipes started to freeze. At the time it hadn’t been especially cold, only a few degrees below zero, so the vast amounts of snow had remained their biggest problem.

That night, they’d gathered all of their blankets in a big pile in front of the fireplace and had slept together in their makeshift nest to try and keep warm. Luckily Erwin and Mike were giant space-heaters, so Levi and Hanji had both slept comfortably. The taller men had both woken up a couple of times to add more logs to the fire to keep it from going out, and in all things had gone pretty well.

When they had woken up on the 24th, the power and heating had been working again, but the internet had still not been working, much to their dismay. Since there were no cell towers in the area, they had been depending on the portable router Mike had bought for the cabin. With their only means of communication cut off, they had no way of contacting their families and loved ones to let them know that they were fine but still completely trapped by the snow.

As the day wore on and they started scrounging up food for a few decent meals, the mood in the cabin had started to worsen as everyone realized that they probably wouldn’t make it home on time for Christmas. Hanji had perked up a bit when they’d come across the box of cookie mix, and Levi had decided to crack open their last bottle of red wine to go with the meal, though he did start drinking it a bit early.

He stood in the kitchen, sipping and observing his best friend. Though Hanji still kept up a cheerful demeanor as they hopped about, waiting for the pizza and lasagna to finish cooking, Levi knew that underneath it all Hanji was definitely feeling down. When the oven finally beeped, Levi armed himself with oven mitts and removed both trays of food one at a time, setting them on the table to cool, while Hanji placed the sheet of cookies in the oven. Erwin and Mike had gone to clean themselves up after spending the afternoon shovelling the newest layer of snow.

They continued standing around in silence, Hanji fidgeting now that they didn’t have anything to occupy their hands or their mind, Levi still sipping on his wine. When the timer finally beeped, Hanji jumped up to pull on the gloves and remove the tray from the oven, placing it on the counter.

“Oh…” they began, quickly looking dejected as they observed their result. “I… ruined them.”

Levi sighed, put his glad down on the counter, and wandered over just as tears begin to well up in Hanji’s eyes.

“What’s wrong with them?” he asked, placing a comforting arm around his friend’s waist ( _not at all_ because their shoulders were too high to reach) and evaluating the sheet of cookies in front of them.

“They’re all…” they trailed off as they waved a hand at the cookies, trying to convey their intended meaning.

“Well, they’re probably like that because you put them way too close together, dummy,” Levi said, giving Hanji a small but fond smile. “It would have been better to split them onto two different sheets, but they aren’t ruined… We can just cut out pieces, like a brownie or a cake or something. It’ll be fine.”

“Ok. Ok,” they repeated, tears still falling as their thoughts wandered to what was really troubling them. “Will it really be ok, Levi?”

He shrugged. There was no use trying to sugarcoat things.

“Well, as long as we’re able to go get more food and supplies within the next couple of days, we’ll survive at least. As for getting home, well, we’ll still have to wait for the weather to clear up. At worst we can all cram ourselves into Mike’s truck and come back for Erwin’s car some other time.”

“Yeah,” Hanji said unsteadily, suddenly pulling Levi in for a real hug as they rested their head on his shoulder. “It’s just… it was going to be our first Christmas together.”

Levi had been the one to introduce Hanji to Petra in the first place. The short redhead worked in the same department as Levi at the university where both he and Erwin were professors, and Levi had always found her to be much more pleasant that their other idiotic colleagues. Hanji and Petra had started casually dating back in late April, and it had turned into a serious and committed relationship by June.

Levi knew that of the four of them, Hanji was feeling the lowest at the moment. Though he had never been big on holidays or celebrations of any kind, he knew these things meant a lot to his friends. For Levi, he had Erwin with him at  least, and it wasn’t like they didn’t visit Erwin’s parents at other times during the year. Though it sucked that Nanaba and Mike would be spending the holiday apart this year, the two had been dating for a long time and already had many Christmases together under their belts.

“Petra will be waiting for you when you get back, trust me; I know her well enough to know that right now, she’s less worried about you two missing your first Christmas together, and more worried about the fact that she hasn’t gotten a call from you for the past couple of days to bother her with your dumb stories about your dreams or what kind of shit you took or whatever it is you guys skype about.”

Hanji laughed at that, finally straightening up and wiping her eyes.

“You love my stories though,” they said, giving him a smile.

“Your stories are shit and you know that,” he deadpanned. _But yeah, I love to hear you tell them._

Their moment was interrupted when the two tall blonds finally came down and walked into the kitchen, talking animatedly about hockey or some other shit Levi didn’t really give a damn about. But Hanji was smiling again, and that’s what mattered.

They ate their food, drank their wine, and pretty much wolfed down Hanji’s cookies once they actually managed to remove them from the pan. Turns out the package of mix had still been quite fine, and the cookies were _delicious_ , not to mention the first chocolate any of them had tasted in days.

After the meal, they drank a few more beers while playing cards in front of the fireplace late into the night. For once, Erwin found himself doing quite horribly, and Levi was drunk enough to burst out laughing every time Mike or Hanji triumphantly beat one of Erwin’s hands at poker. Erwin finally gave up, frustrated and nowhere near sober enough to realize that Levi had been giving his hand away behind his back, as he’d been curled up against Erwin’s side and had had a perfect view of his cards.

They fell asleep together by the fire, and woke up Christmas day close to noon. Their brunch consisted of granola bars, clementines, and the last of their hot chocolate. The three had tried to sing Levi “Happy birthday”, but he had shut them down with a glare pretty quickly, which only managed to dissolve their singing into outright laughter. Mike had reached over and mussed up his hair, Levi swatting his beefy arm away and leaving himself open for a tackle-hug from Hanji. When he’d finally freed his boyfriend from their friends, Erwin had pulled a pouting Levi into his arms, promising that they’d do something small for his birthday once they got back to the city.

By early afternoon the internet started working again, the sky having finally cleared up and the monstrous snowfall over once and for all. They spent the remainder of the day on skype with various family members and friends, assuring them they were quite alright and would be home as soon as it was safe to drive. One of Hanji’s dads offered to borrow his friend’s truck that was equipped with a front plow and come clear them a path if things stayed bad for too long, for which they were all very thankful.

When night finally fell, Mike headed off to bed after letting them know he would try and drive and drive to the nearest village the next day to buy more supplies, if the weather was still good. Erwin followed soon after, giving Levi a quick kiss on the cheek as he and Hanji kept chatting with Petra over skype.

After a few more minutes, Levi decided to leave the two to themselves and bid them goodnight, pausing at the bottom of the stairs to look back over his shoulder one last time before heading up. Hanji was curled up on the couch, covered in blankets and the laptop perched on her lap. Her eyes glanced up and met Levi’s, and they gave him a wide, genuine smile. Hanji mouthed him a “Happy birthday”, and he gave them a nod, glad to see that his friend was finally doing all right. He turned away and headed up the stairs, smiling to himself as Hanji’s soft laughter drifted up from behind him.

**Author's Note:**

> Still taking writing prompts over on tumblr (shooponthemoon)  
> Check my fandoms list to see what kind of stuff I'd be down to write! Or just come and talk about your headcanons and ideas for the scouting bros and the other dorks too XD


End file.
